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arXiv · 2010.00008

Black hole binaries and light fields: Gravitational molecules

Taishi Ikeda·Laura Bernard·Vitor Cardoso·Miguel Zilhao
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Abstract

We show that light scalars can form quasibound states around binaries. In the nonrelativistic regime, these states are formally described by the quantum-mechanical Schrodinger equation for a one-electron heteronuclear diatomic molecule. We performed extensive numerical simulations of scalar fields around black hole binaries showing that a scalar structure condenses around the binary -- we dub these states "gravitational molecules". We further show that these are well described by the perturbative, nonrelativistic description.

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Taishi Ikeda, Laura Bernard, Vitor Cardoso, Miguel Zilhao. 2020-09-30. Black hole binaries and light fields: Gravitational molecules. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.103.024020

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